Spirit Airlines Pilots Strike This Morning

[Gerard]

http://www.aolnews.com/article/traveler ... e/19513704

[coachrowsey]

Based on the little I know, I'm 100% behind these folks. The airlines have to stop screwing us. Time to take a stand :borat:

[727C47]

1000% behind these boys,and girls

[MarkLawrence]

Now cancelled all Sunday's flights. I am with you all being behind them - just feel sorry for relatives of close friends who are trying to get back to Puerto Rico - they are stuck but have to be back by Monday morning....

[Matt Molnar]

I can't imagine Spirit can survive much more than a week without any revenue. The fact that they're still in business in the first place is a minor miracle.

[USAF Pilot 07]

Great. Maybe they'll just have to bump the carry-on fee to $100 per person. The airline is becoming a joke and these pilots are soon going to be out of work if they continue the strike. I'm all for fair wages, but in this economy, and with such a surplus of pilots, and pilots willing to work for peanuts, the strike seems like a shot in the foot.

[threeholerglory]

I agree with all above...it's about damn time pilots stood up for what they deserve (which is to be treated as pilots, not bus drivers)....at the same time, the airlines and consumers have influenced the job market to the point where pilots can and will work for next to nothing, even if it means living in conditions as depicted in the special on Colgan. I feel that it's a damned if you do, damned if you don't scenario...it's imperative to make a statement that hopefully all commercial pilots will follow, but these people also need to protect their best interests which involve keeping their jobs.

Granted we are in a miserable at best economy and people aren't spending as much as normal, I firmly believe in working for what you are truly worth. Allowing consumers to dictate the price of a ticket (which as we all know is "how low can we go?") forces management to scalp costs in other areas. If slashing payroll spending saves the company money and they still have pilots willing to work for the company, so be it. Then of course there are all these low-time pilots looking for any flying work they can get, and will always work for less than the next guy...there is a perpetual cycle that stems from the consumer and cycles through the airline's various departments.

That said, until the consumer is willing to pay what the services are truly worth, we will continue to see deteriorating services and more strikes.

Of course this is just my two cents, but I feel very strongly about it. For above said reasons, I have chosen not to actively pursuit a profession in aviation as a pilot.

Here ends my rant.

[rkfast]

So Spirit pilots are upset that their pay lags behind Airtran and JetBlue?

Im sorry, the pilots are wrong there. What you get paid to do a job depends highly on who you do it for. Thats a fact for any job, even for those in fields as highly specialized as pilots. Doctors in public hospitals dont make the same as those in bigger, private ones. Programmers for small software companies dont make as much as those working for Microsoft. And so on. You could be the best dang pilot alive, but flying for Spirit wont earn you the same salary compared to flying for American, or even JetBlue a carrier fifty times bigger and more sophisticated than Spirit. I agree that pilots should be treated as such. I shudder when I hear pilots are asked to clean cabins and what not, in order to save a buck. But on the other hand the Spirit crews are being compensated and payed as "bus drivers" because if youve ever flown Spirit, you know there is nothing closer to 'airborne bus travel' out there. If these piltos want better pay, they need to go work for a better airline.

[coachrowsey]

The pilot situation is a damed if you do & damed if you don't. Again I'm glad they are willing to take the stand even at great risk.

Slight off topic on pilot pay issues, my 20 year old son will be a college senior this uo coming year majoring in eng. He loves to fly & while school is out he has been out flying around the system just because he loves it. He has no flight hours, but I have no doubt he would go for it if he wouldn't have to shell out so much & then make starvation wages.

[Matt Molnar]

All flights now canceled through Tuesday.

[MarkLawrence]

I think they have to get something resolved soon - otherwise - there won't be an airline to strike against - there will be no pay period!

[NIKV69]

Yea this could be a disaster. Wonder who will blink first because it can't go too long.

[Matt Molnar]

A pretty well-informed source on twitter (sorry, his name escapes me at the moment) suggested that Spirit management will play dirty: Take the company to the very edge of collapse and then try to entice pilots to cross the picket lines.

I think it's possible. These guys are pretty hardcore, after all...that whole charging for carry-ons idea required balls of steel.

Does management even have anything to lose at this point? Their only asset is the brand, which has been more or less destroyed by bad press from the carry-on charges and now the strike. Everything else...planes + gates + offices = leased.

[NIKV69]

That will probably backfire, if the pilots take it that far they will most likely hang together which will just destroy the airline. If none have crossed now they ain't going to. IMO

[Matt Molnar]

Forgot another asset...their LGA and DCA slots. Probably worth more than the brand, enough to pay off a couple months of debt.